2019 Goals - how did we do

2019 was a wild adventure. I took a sabbatical, received a big promotion at work, went through a bunch of work changes that have eventually led to work improvements (but, the process was crazy). M switched jobs 2x due to org changes. We took lots of trips (together & with others). Those included: several trips to Las Vegas, a trip to Napa, a Hawaii girls trip, several family ski trips, multiple trips to the Oregon coast... Plus multiple work trips. I also completed a half marathon & ran our traditional family relay, with Sam joining in this year.

We struggled with house projects (still awaiting a delivery date for our final door), worked with our pediatrician to have Sam diagnosed with ADHD & got that process underway. Sam was hit by a car on his way to school while biking, and we are incredibly grateful that everything turned out okay.

Largely for us, it was a year of changes & growth. We are all growing, particularly the teen boys in our family! While we didn't accomplish everything on the list, I'm really happy with what did get done. I always set our goals incredibly high, so even when we don't hit all of them, I know we worked hard. I will say that losing weight will need to be a top priority for 2020. As I get older, this process is harder & while I invest a lot of time into my fitness, it's not translating into results, so tweaks are required.

Here's how 2019 went!



1) Financial:

• Stick to the budget - well, we did well in some categories, & not well in others. Most of our intentional overspend was paying down our mortgage, and adding extra to the boys college accounts. We also increased our travel spending & home projects, as I was on sabbatical. Each year, we continue to work to prioritize our spending in line with our values, & we continue to track all of our spending, so we can reflect back at the end of each month/year. While far from perfect, I'm giving us a yellow on this one. 
• Come up with a "pay off our house" model, & a 3/5/10 year plan - we instead focused on a "pay off half of our mortgage" plan, and have this mapped out. It gives us a nice focus that is realistic, and allows us to get the mortgage down to a much more manageable/comfortable level. 
• Every month, come up with a new way to reduce what we need/spend on an ongoing basis. - I didn't really do this often. I had a few wins, but we've optimized a bunch of stuff already, so it's hard to do this on a recurring basis. 
• Make $3,000 in side hustle money (I made $2,791 in 2018, so this will be a nice stretch) - I made $3700 in 2019! Woohoo!
• Continue to track "unplanned" money & divert it to our goals - We had $5084 in non-paycheck money (this includes the side hustle). I tracked this, and sent some to the boys college account, and some to pay down our mortgage. 
• Increase our charitable giving to cover the new corporate match. - We did increase our charitable giving in 2020. Because I wasn't paid over my sabbatical, we didn't quite hit the corporate match.  

2) Family - Spend more time together as a family!

• Do a minimum of one fun activity/month with the kids.  - We did lots of fun things with the kids... ski trips, kite flying, frisbee on the beach, etc. 
• Be more present with the kids & M - play games, minimize computer time, exercise together, etc. - I've made lots of improvements on this one, and ended up setting an "off the computer" goal. We also joined a gym together. While this one ebbs & flows a bit, overall, I'm pleased with the progress. 
• Have two dates with M per month - We achieved at least one each month, and then also took a few long weekends together, plus an unexpected bonus trip to Hawaii in November. 

3) Fitness/health - lose 15 pounds. Definitely not. I'm starting the year almost exactly where I ended last year. I made some progress in the spring, but unwound that over the summer/fall. 

• Eat 5 servings of fruit & vegetables/day - yes, I was at 5.13/day. 
• Build & follow a training plan & run a half marathon in under 2:25. - I ran a half marathon, and mostly followed a training plan, but was nowhere near my PR. 
• Work out every day in 2019. (Realistically, this will be completing 365 workouts, vs hitting every day. I want a bit of flexibility for days I'm sick, traveling, etc.)  - I completed 323 workouts for the year, so a bit off of the mark. 
• Get back to more actively tracking my calories - I tracked pretty much all non travel & vacation days. Of course, those big outliers are what interferes most with my progress. 
• Complete 10,000 minutes of cardio - I ended the year with 11,890 minutes of cardio. 
• Complete 100 strength workouts. - I completed 85 strength workouts. 
• Complete 75 stretching workouts. - I completed 31 stretching workouts, so not even half of my plan. 
• Complete 100 meditations - I meditated 42 times. 

4) Work/career - Improve my work life balance.

• Keep better perspective at work/reduce stress (until I leave)  - I largely did this. 
• Take a sabbatical - YES, and it was amazing!
• Decide on returning to work part time - I was promoted after my sabbatical, which changed my plans a bit. But, I'm comfortable with things for now. 
• Stop using electronics by 7:30 each evening - this became more of a family goal than a work goal, but nonetheless, did reasonably well on this one. 

5) Personal/creative - Spend more time on myself/creative pursuits.

• Make time for my friends. Do something social at least once per month. - while not evenly distributed, I did plenty of this over my sabbatical, and tried to find other times to make this happen. I added a couple of social lunches to my calendar (work lunches), went for walks with friends, etc. 
• Volunteer a minimum of 1x/month - this hasn't happened for a variety of reasons. I need to invest the time to figure out what this could look like in 2020. 
• Write/journal - I journaled 115 times in 2019, and really, really enjoyed it. I'm going to keep it up in 2020. 
• Make something homemade for Christmas - we changed our plans & while I did make a few homemade things, I want to be even more creative in 2020. 
• Make photo books & get rid of our all extra digital & photo clutter - well, I did organize our photos, made a wedding album & a baby book for Sam, but ... pretty much petered out after that. The rest of the photos are digital & didn't get further than that. 

What about you? How did you do with your 2019 goals? Any big wins? Any goals you are carrying over to 2020?